By Stuart Marston

Monty the Osteosarcoma dog

I was interested to hear about your current osteosarcoma trial. Although our case doesn’t meet the trial criteria, I thought you may be interested to hear how homeopathy has helped to save our boy’s life and continues to support his battle with this dreadful disease.

Monty is a 12 year old Labradoodle, always been pretty fit and healthy but he does have a couple of lipomas now and a bit of arthritis around his elbow which caused intermittent lameness but generally after a day's rest he'd be fine again.

At the end of October 2017 he misjudged a jump and stumbled. He limped back to the car and we then rested him and dosed him with arnica 30c and rhus tox 30c. Limp persisted and the carpal joint seemed to thicken so I took him to the vet who prescribed Metacam and rest.

It made little difference so a week later we went back to the vet and he prescribed additional pain relief (Pardale) and booked him in for x-rays to see if he had maybe chipped one of the carpal or metacarpal bones. An X-ray was done the following Friday and we were devastated to discover that he had an osteosarcoma which had fractured the distal radius. On discovery, they took further x-rays of his lungs and thankfully they appeared to be clear.

The options offered were limb amputation (3-6 months life expectancy) or palliative care only (1-3 months). Quality of life was our primary concern and if he’d looked sick and/or unhappy, the decision would’ve been a no brainer but he was still playful and interacting with our other dogs.

He was hardly weight bearing on the affected limb so his body was already adapting to life as a tripawd but still, it was not an easy decision so I sought further advice from the wonderful Dr Sue Armstrong who confirmed that immediate amputation was his only hope and also suggested some homeopathic remedies to support his post-op recovery.

Other than suggesting 3 rounds of chemo which we politely declined, the conventional vet could offer no other post op support. They just told us to go away and enjoy what little time we had left with him but we chose to follow Sue’s homeopathic treatment protocol and dietary advice instead.

It was 3 months yesterday since his amputation and he is doing well, free from pain and enjoying life. I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that Sue and homeopathy saved our boy’s life and I will be eternally grateful for her help and support.

I am appalled by the RCVS November statement, effectively preventing dedicated professionals from treating their clients to the best of their abilities and removing freedom of choice from animal guardians.

I sincerely hope that common sense will eventually prevail and that Monty’s story might add some grist to the mill.

After 5 weeks he climbed Snowdon

"Arthritis of the Back. Our collie Arran developed arthritis of the thoracic and lumbo-sacral spine in October 2007, requiring pain-killers and chiropractic treatment. Our homeopathic vet Geoff Johnson saw him in March 2008 and gave the remedy Ovi-g-p 200 for two days because of the symptoms, her character and her anxiety when the dawn chorus started! He got much lamer for three days, and more fearful for two weeks, and then began to improve. After five weeks he climbed Snowdon, rolling about in the snow. He is off pain-killers to this day, and has had the remedy repeated on four occasions."

Dr Sandra Reeve // Axminster, Devon

We didn't want amputation and chemotherapy for Beanie

Bone Cancer "In September 2007 our family dog Beanie became lame and was found to have an osteosarcoma of her shoulder. There is no conventional treatment for this and we were told we would be lucky if she was still with us for Christmas. We decided to try homeopathic treatment. Homeopathic vet Geoff Johnson felt the grief and homesickness that Beanie showed when we moved here from France could have been the initiating factor, and gave a remedy called Phos-ac 200 that dealt with this as well as the cancer. Beanie is with us now and pain free on homeopathy two Christmases later."

Laura Sturgess // Lydeard, St Lawrence

Millie – Living proof homeopathy works

Conventional vets were not interested in healing her. They said there was nothing that could be done for her. She couldn't walk, she couldn't climb the stairs, she couldn't run in the park. Her quality of life was very very curtailed.